Barium Titanate (BaTiO3) is one of the most important ceramic materials in electronics. As an intrinsic ferroelectric material it can be used in various applications, for example: as a multilayer capacitor, a grain boundary capacitor and in thermistors (heat sensitive resistor).
Deposition of Barium Titanate thin films onto metal electrodes is of great interest because of the possibility of integration of a dielectric layer with semiconductor and metal structures.
Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is an effective technique to prepare a green film of ceramics on a substrate.
Considerable work with organic solutions as the suspension medium for Barium Titanate powders has been done, however the use of organic liquids poses environmental and health hazards due to their toxic nature. In addition, such organic solutions are hard to handle and are costly.
Anodic electrophoretic deposition of Barium Titanate on Platinum anodes was suggested by Zhao J., Wang X, Li L (2006) Mat. Chem. Phys 666: 530. Platinum is not subjected to oxidation but is very expensive.
There is a growing need to provide efficient methods for producing Barium Titanate layers, and in particular thin and crack-free layers.